A New Friend: Chapter 2
Josh's P.O.V I ran and ran deeper into the forest, with tears streaming down my cheeks. I finally found a convenient place to let my emotions out (which was beside a juniper tree) and buried my face in my hands and started sobbing. How could she hate me so much? I have not done anything that would offend her or what... I don't know how much time has passed, but I just kept crying to release my emotion bit by bit. I can sense dryads are coming out of their hiding place to look at me. I don't care at this point, I just.... Wait a moment... I took a gentle wipe of my tears, but this time is colored green, the color of chlorophyll. I wondered why I had the tears of a dryad. I decided to wave that aside, and kept sobbing. I willed myself to turn leaf green, the color when I was photosynthesizing. I just can't believe that other than making the new girl my friend, instead she turned against me when we lost the Capture the Flag game. Hippolyta's P.O.V I got to admit that my friend, Mary had gone a little too far about the game. This is just a game, really. It's nothing personal. I sensed a large amount of tears being shed just beside the juniper tree, and I was right. Josh is sobbing uncontrollably, maybe because Mary had treated him cruelly. I sat beside the crying Josh, and gently touched his shoulder. "Josh, don't cry." I said. "It's okay... Mary wasn't got used to losing, and she had a tough life. She didn't mean to hurt you, she is new and she doesn't understand the point of a game." Josh pushed my hand off. "Just leave me alone!" He sobbed. I wonder what is happening, why he wouldn't easily forgive her. Then, a thought struck me. He has been in the camp for years, and he gains a very high amount of respect. This incident make him lose respect drastically, but why would he lose respect? They know that he would lose to a girl that huge. I just can't stand watching my friend like this, I decided to confront Mary. I walked towards the sword fighting arena, and when I saw Mary, I summoned vines to pull her towards me. "Hey! What the...." She kept fighting with the vines as she broke them each by each, and when she is dragged close enough to me, I grabbed her hand and told her sternly. "What have you done with my Josh?" Mary gave me a disgusted look. "Josh? Well, I just gave him a little lesson on paying attention to the game." "You should look at Josh now, Mary." I said. "He's crying because of you." "Because of me?" Mary asked. I decided that I will check on him again. I melted through the earth and appeared right beside him. I saw the dryads are trying to calm him down by bringing him flowers and other gifts. I wondered what good deed that Josh had done to them for making them feel pity on him. One of the dryads tried to grab Josh's cheeks, but Josh just kept on sobbing. The dryad that grabbed Josh's cheeks is about to kiss him, when one other dryad pulled her and approached Josh. Josh lifted his face and he looked confused. I wondered if he was surprised to see if there is so many dryads looking at him. I gently touched his cheek, and crouched in front of him. The dryads ran away. "Josh? I just wanted you to know that...." "That what?" He sobbed. "That Mary didn't mean it." I continued. "She is just angry she lost her first game in Capture the flag." I stroked Josh's green hair. It seemed to turn gold as I stroke it, and it did turn gold when I touch it. I lifted Josh up, and he kept sobbing. Josh is in a sad mood now. I can't possibly imagine what my little friend had gone through. It's just too much for him. After a good 2 hours, he calmed down, wiping his tears from his face. His eyes were red from crying. "Come on." Josh said shakily. "Let's go find your parents." So me and the crying Josh met up with Mary, which is on the big house. When Mary saw Josh, she suddenly looked sad. "Hey Josh..." She began. "I-- I'm sorry about what happened before, it's...." "Just go away..." He muttered. "No, Josh." Mary approached him. "No, I'm mad at you because I'm still thinking that you're the one behind this, It has nothing to do with the game, Josh." Josh looked up at Mary, grabbing a handkerchief from his pocket and wipes his face. "So, you're not pissed and all that?" Mary smiled at him. "Of course not, my friend." For the first time in a day, Josh laughed a bit and hugged Mary. Mary hugged him back, and just then, Chiron came inside the big house. "Hey, it looks like Josh and Mary had their relationship fixed now." Chiron said. "It sure did." I told him. "It appears that Mary is only pissed because of losing a game, and it is her first time playing capture the flag." "Wow, what a temperamental for the first game, I'm sure that she won't repeat her mistake again." Chiron continued. Just then, Rachel came to the big house, and immediately green mists started glowing inside her. Rachel doubled over and spoke the following words. The Children of the earth and heavy burdens '' ''Wishing to relieve their gigantic curse as pardons One shall be sacrificed Or else the girls will never be normalized. Then Rachel collapsed. I got her. Josh's P.O.V I shuddered at the thought. One should be sacrificed or else both girls will never become normal again. No, I can't be sacrificed... I still have my full life ahead of me. I don't want this to end right now. I looked at both Hippolyta and Mary. They need to be back to normal size. They are neglected by their friends as a result from the experiment. I also felt pity for them, so I decided that I would join this quest no matter what the consequences are. "Ok, now Josh, Hippolyta and Mary can pack up for quests right now. You will depart at 2 hours maximum, so pack your stuff and meet back at Thalia's pine tree as soon as possible." Chiron said. So I sprinted towards Hyperion's cabin and grabbed my stuff. I packed my meals (burger), my concealed knife, other miscellaneous stuff for camping, and of course, my necklace. Once I had all of my stuff packed, I walked out of the cabin and met up with Hippolyta and Mary. Just then, I saw Annabeth Chase coming towards us. I wondered why she is here, I didn't invite her here. Hippolyta leaned over me and whispered. "She's here because we asked her to." she said. That makes sense. Annabeth is a daughter of Athena. She can make witty decisions and make strategies about defeating a monster. I decided that Annabeth will join the team. I know that Annabeth will be very useful in this quest. I wondered if there is a cure to their pituitary gigantism, but we have to try. "Then let's go now." Hippolyta told all of us. So, I walked out of the camp and out of the gates. I stood right beside Thalia's Pine Tree. Ladon the dragon stirred from his sleep, and when he saw the fleece still etched on the tree, he returned to sleep. It feels great to finally go on a quest again after 3 weeks being confined in the infirmary. I was able to enjoy the smell of fresh air, and the sight of the outside world once again. The cars were passing through, the houses are wonderful to look at, the kids were enjoying their time playing with swings. I can see one of the kids fell from a swing because he made the swing to swing very high but he couldn't control it, so he fell towards the ground. Anyway, enough talking. We were walking to see if there were any transport that we could find. After a while looking for transports, we finally found one. The silver Mercedes Benz parked right in front of me. Somehow, this reminds me of the moon goddess, Artemis. But I am worried to how all of us are going to fit in the car, since we have two oversized giants right beside me. Then, when the door opened, a girl with auburn hair and silver eyes stared at all of us. This is obviously Artemis. She looked like 9 feet tall now, and her looks just grew more beautiful. I wonder if she can surpass that of Apollo. Artemis patted my head, and she looked at the rest of the members of the questers. "Greetings, demigods." We all knelt before her. Artemis walked towards us and gestured her hand in a way that says: Rise, demigods. We rose, and Artemis told us some information that we will need to know before proceeding. "So, Hippolyta and Mary wants to be cured from their height problems, yes?" "Yes, lady Artemis." Mary said to her. "I believe, this can be useful for you." Artemis handed us each a food pack, each were just about the right size. I got a smaller pack, since I am small. Mine is the size of a backpack. I wished that mine is a little bit larger since my portion is roughly similar to that of Annabeth, but whatever... I accepted the Goddess' gift with delight as we strolled off towards the road. We need to head back to Mount Othyrs immediately. I wanted Hippolyta and Mary to resolve their pituitary gigantism thingy fast, so I decided that we will travel by bus. I hoped that we will find a bus that would fit Hippolyta and Mary in. Seeing Mount Othyrs, I remembered that the moon recently dropped one and a half weeks ago, and Mary had hold it for half a day. "So Mary," I began. Her huge featured turned towards me. "Yeah?" "I heard that you've held the weight of the moon, is that correct?" I asked her. She smiled, and jumped up and down excitedly. I wonder why she did that. The moon is much much more heavier than the sky itself. "Yes, it's like a new exercise for me! Isn't it great? I had a new method of exercising!" She said with excitement. "How does it feel?" I asked. "Well, it feels great, until you hold it too long and it feels painful for about half a day. It's 50 times more heavier than the weight of the sky." I stared at her with my eyes wide. This girl is obviously have way too much workout, having the weight of the sky as a daily exercise, and she is looking for more methods of exercising. Now she's already move on to the weight of the moon. I think Mary needs some time off her exercise. She had been exercising in so not the right way. But since she is a daughter of Atlas, she can do it. But I cannot do it. I know if I hold it more than 30 minutes, I will die from the weight. I will only hold it under special circumstances. Anyway, we finally found a bus that is big enough to carry Mary, Hippolyta and the rest of us. The bus looked like a huge, gateway where people walk on the catwalk going to the airport. Now, our main destination is Mount Othyrs first, because Mary want us to go there. So, we got on the bus. One by one, we got in the bus. First Mary, then Hippolyta, then myself, then Annabeth. I immediately sat between Hippolyta and Mary, where they squished me in between. I slept on Hippolyta's lap. Dreams found me. I was in the same laboratory as before, and I saw Eddie Kanakaredes and Michelle Lester working together, they each had inserted their 4 year old daughters inside the chambers. "Are you ready?" Eddie said to her partner, Michelle. "Ready." Michelle said. Then, they activated the chamber. I can see some of the HGH started flowing from the tubes and into the children. Just a little doze is enough, but they went to add a little more. After 2 minutes, their daughters stepped out from the chamber. "See?" Eddie told the 4 year old Hippolyta. "It won't take long." "Now you see, my Mary." Michelle told her. "It only took a while to do this experiment." Then, they took some kind of notes. They are my stolen research paper! Just then, I woke up to screaming. Hippolyta had shook me awake, because she pointed out that something is falling from the sky. I walked out of the bus, and sure enough, something was falling from the sky. I really wished we were in San Francisco, but unfortunately, we were in Las Vegas. San Francisco was so far away from Las Vegas. Anyway, the object that fell looks like a moon, but it's not. It looks like some kind of meteor. The meteor is hurling towards us, and we figured that we have only a few minutes to run away. So, me, Hippolyta, Mary and Annabeth ran away from the meteor. Once the meteor landed, it causes a huge explosion. I looked where the meteor had landed, it appears to be some kind of message. Then I noticed it emits a very bright light, like that of the sun. Once the bright light extinguishes, the meteor opens up and reveals a message. This must be coming from Apollo, the sun god himself. Inside, there is a letter, which I took it out of the crater shell, and I open it up and read aloud: "Beware to those who seek to relief Hippolyta's and Mary's gigantism! Dangers are ahead!" Wow, that's real comforting, I thought. Category:Josh-Son Of Hyperion Category:A New Friend Category:Chapter Page